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Saturday, December 13, 2014

In so-called moderate Indonesia, Meidyatama Suryodiningrat- the editor of The Jakarta Post (an English-language newspaper)- could spend 5 years in jail for blasphemy. Why? Because a cartoon the newspaper published this past July offended the hard-line Islamists.

The cartoon- quite obviously critical of ISIS- shows a bunch of armed jihadists, one of whom is pointing a gun at the head of a blindfolded man kneeling next to other blindfolded men (we've all seen those videos and photos), and another one hoisting a black flag with a picture of a skull and crossbones with "There is no God but Allah" written in Arabic.

An apology on the front page wasn't enough to appease the easily offended..

Following an outcry from Islamic groups, the Jakarta Post issued a front-page apology and retracted the cartoon five days later, insisting it was meant to “critique the use of religious symbols” and as a “reproach” to ISIS, a brutal Islamist group which holds vast swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq.

A group called the Jakarta Muslim Preachers Corps filed a complaint to the police and on Friday, Jakarta police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name, said that Suryodiningrat had been officially named a suspect the previous day.

“The status of MS has been upgraded to suspect,” said the spokesman, using the editor’s initials, the usual practice in criminal cases in Indonesia.

It's proof that there are more radical Muslims out there than people would like to admit. Anyone who supports a violent, terrorist group like ISIS is one step from being a terrorist themselves.